Steering-head for motor-driven road-vehicles



H. B. MOLESWORTH.

STEERNG HEAD FOR MOTOR DRIVEN ROAD VEHICLES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.14, 1919.

1,370,900. Patented-Mar. 8, 1921.

ATry

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STEERING-HEAD FOR MOTOR-DRIVEN ROAD-VEHICLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 8, 192.1.

' Original application filed September 12, 1918, Serial No. 253,733.Divided and this application filed August 14, 1919. Serial No. 317,570.'

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY BRIDGES MoLnswoRrH, a subject of the King ofGreat Britain, and resident of Bexley, Kent, England, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Steering-Heads for Motor- DrivenRoad-Vehicles, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in steering heads for motor drivenroad vehicles by which the steering road wheels of such vehicles areoperatively moved through a hand wheel mounted on the chassis, and theobject of my improvement is to enable the said vehicles to be driven atthe same speeds and with equal facility in both directions of travel andby the same steering operating means, thus obviating the necessity ofturning the vehicles when opposite direc-.

tion of travel is required.

I attain the object of my improvement by the mechanism illustrated inthe accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 1s an elevation of asteering head according to my invention.

Figs. 2 and 3 are elevations of a steering head according to myinvention in modified forms relatively to the construction illustratedby Fig. 1.

The same reference numerals denote the same parts throughout the severalfigures.

Referring to Fig. 1, 1 is the steering shaft supported on the vehicle towhich it is fitted by a suitable pillar (not shown), the said shafthaving keyed or otherwise rigidly secured thereto the bevel or the likegear wheel 2. Meshing with such gear wheel is a bevel or the like pinion3 rigidly carried by the shaft 4, the said shaft 1 being suitablysupported for rotation on the steering pillar and on the said shaft 4 Iprovide two hand wheels 5. The lower end of the shaft 1 rigidly carriesa worm 6 meshing with a wheel 7 rigid with which is the arm piece 8. Thesaid arm piece 8 is suitably connected to a rod or other convenientmeans whereby the steering road wheels may be moved for the purpose ofsteering the vehicle carrying the steering head. The wheel 7 has arotary movement on a stud 9 secured to the chassis of the vehicle.

When it is desired that the hand wheels 5 shall be in an inclinedposition I modify the arran ement lastly hereinbefore described as s ownin Fig. 2 wherein the wheel 2 is provided with teeth at 10, 11, and eachhand wheel is carried by a shaft 12, to each of which shafts is rigidlysecured the pinion 3, which pinions respectively mesh with the Wheel 2.The hand wheels 5 (with their shafts) may'be supported for rotation onthe steering pillar in any suitable and convenient manner.

I may modify the steering head as lastly hereinbefore described in themanner illustrated by Fig. 3. Referring to such figure it will be seenthat I dispense with the shaft 1 and the wheel 2 and arrange the pinions3' on the shafts 12 in mesh with each other, the worm 6 in such casebeing carried by one of the shafts 12 as shown, such shaft thusoperating as the steering shaft.

Instead of the worm 6 and the wheel 7 in all cases I may employ anyother suitable means for-imparting movement to the rod or the like abovereferred to for operating the steering road wheels.

The steering pillar is placed in any convenient position on a vehicle,but so that the hand wheels are in the usual direction relatively to thevehicle and a seat for the driver may be arranged at two sides of thesteering pillar in a line with the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, orone seat only may be provided and so arranged as to pivot about thesteering pillar and thus be capable of being moved from one side of thesteering pillar to the other. The driver steers with the hand wheelnearest to him and to proceed in a direction the reverse of that inwhich he has been traveling be either merely changes from one seat tothe other (where two seats are provided) or (when there is but one seatas referred to above) he moves such seat to the opposite side of thesteering pillar and steers with the other hand wheel.

It will be understood that the effect of the super-addition of thebevelor like gearing relatively to the steering head is to'cause the steeringroad wheels to be moved in the desired direction whichever hand wheel isoperated.

I claim.

1. A steering head for motor vehicles, comprising a rotatable steeringmember, a pair of hand wheels supported for rotation at opposite sidesof said steering member, and gearing between said hand wheels andsteering member for rotating said member from either of said handwheels, the direction of rotation of said member being the same when thehand Wheels are rotated in the same direction.

2. A steering head for motor vehicles, comprising a rotatable steeringmember, a pair of hand wheels supported for rotation at opposite sidesof said steering member, gearing between said hand wheels and steeringmember for rotating said member from eitherof said hand wheels, thedirection of rotation of said member being the same when the hand wheelsare rotated in the same direction, and means carried by said steeringmember for transmitting motion to the steering mechanism of a vehlcle.

' 3. A steering head for motor vehicles,

comprising a vertical shaft mounted for rotationand carrying means fortransmitting motion to the steering mechanism of a vehicle, ahorizontalshaft mounted for rotation, a pair of hand wheels secured tosaid horizontal shaft, one at each side of said vertical shaft, andgearing between said shafts for rotating said vertical shaft from eitherof said hand wheels, the direction of rotation of said shaft being thesame when the hand wheels are rotated in the same direction.

D L Qd'QGth June, 1919.

HENRY BRIDGES MOLESWORTH.

